Saturday, March 27, 2010

Chase Hassles Woman For $45K In Payments For Home She No Longer Owns - The Consumerist"In Oct. 2008, a mother of four in Illinois needed to unload her house or face foreclosure. So she worked with Chase Home Financial and got them to agree to a short sale. Unfortunately, more than a year later not everyone at Chase knows the house was sold, because they're telling the former homeowner she owes almost $45,000 in late payments."--------------Thanks to Mystery Reader for this example of another major screw-up by a bank dunning somebody for money they don't owe. Is this better than foreclosing on the wrong home?

Half of U.S. Home Loan Modifications Default Again (Update1) - Bloomberg.com: "The re-default rate of loans modified in the first quarter of 2009 was 51.5 percent by the end of the year, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said in a joint report today. The figure, which measures payments at least 30 days late, climbed to 57.9 percent for changes made in the prior 12 months.

U.S. homeowners are struggling to make payments as depressed housing prices leave them owing more than their properties are worth. About 24 percent of properties with a mortgage were underwater in the fourth quarter, First American CoreLogic said last month. The median price of a U.S. home was $165,100 in February, down 28 percent from its peak in July 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Modifications are “clearly not working well and it’s not a surprise,” said Sam Khater, a senior economist at First American CoreLogic in Tysons Corner, Virginia. “It’s pointless to rewrite these loans because they’re underwater.”"--------------------No problem, because Obama will just tell the banks to be nice. See below.

Obama readies steps to fight foreclosures, particularly for unemployed - washingtonpost.com: "The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it is tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday."----------Which will push more banks into insolvency, and thus into the arms of the ever-expanding federal regulatory apparatus, where they will be reprogrammed as community service agencies?

Eldo Telecom: Study points to demise of burbs as bedroom communities: "A study by the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology found that long commutes to jobs in the Los Angeles basin from California's Inland Empire area (San Bernardino/Riverside) aren't really worth it when the cost of commuting if factored in. For decades, housing that costs less than comparable real estate closer to jobs in L.A. was the draw that fueled the region's growth. But when the costs of hours spent in cars and gasoline and maintenance are taken into account, it comes out a wash. (And arguably, potentially a net loss when the adverse work/life balance and health affects are included)."------------Fred Pilot, on his blog, zeroes in on the problem that is setting the limits to suburbia.

No more State Police on Chicago expressways? :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Election 2010: "The Chicago Police Department may be forced to assume primary responsibility for patrolling 53 miles of Chicago area expressways -- at a time when police manpower is woefully short -- under Gov. Quinn's proposal to slash the State Police budget and lay off 464 state troopers."---------The CPD is the second-largest police department in the country with 13,000 officers. They claim they have a severe manpower shortage and can't get enough officers on the street as it is, so they can't be expected to write speeding tickets on the expressways.

My observations: 1. CPD officers regard traffic enforcement as a nuisance unless they are specifically assigned to that duty. I walk from Union Station to UIC and back every working day and have been doing so for years.I have never, ever--not one time--seen a Chicago Police Officer writing a traffic ticket. Almost every day I see driving behavior that should lead to public flogging. There are cops hanging out at the 7-11s and elsewhere. No tickets being written.

2. Even with the state police writing tickets on the expressways, it is like a scene from Deathrace. People drive over 100 mph. You see it all the time. And when the go to court for driving over 100 mph, 2/3 of the time they get court supervision and it doesn't even go on their driving record. Don't believe me? Read this. The judges couldn't care less, either, as long as the money comes rolling in from the fines. So: the expressways are full of people driving like maniacs. Many of them are driving on suspended licenses, don't have insurance, and seem not to care if they kill you.

3. So, if they fire the 464 Chicago area state troopers, CPD will not pick up the slack very well and it will be like the Autobahn out there.

Monday, March 22, 2010

americas-most-underwater-housing-markets: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance: "'We have never had negative equity like this at the national level in as many different regions as we have now,' Humphries says. To get a better sense of the cities with the greatest concentrations of negative equity, Zillow provided U.S. News with data that detail the percentage of mortgage borrowers who are underwater in 142 distinct markets throughout the country. Based on this research, we compiled the following list of America's most underwater housing markets. (Please note: We chose no more than one city per state.)"--------Vegas, Merced, Phoenix, Orlando, Greeley, and on. Quite a spread.

N.J. Town Out To Ban Dog Barking Round-The-Clock - wcbstv.com: "But now in Piscataway an ordinance about incessant barking between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., has been expanded to include barking around the clock. And, yes, you could be fined."------------As you can see, Piscataway, NJ, has solved all its other problems and has time for this.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Obama Paying More Than Buffett as Bonds Show U.S. Losing AAA - Bloomberg.com: "While Treasuries backed by the full faith and credit of the government typically yield less than corporate debt, the relationship has flipped as Moody’s Investors Service predicts the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K. America will use about 7 percent of taxes for debt payments in 2010 and almost 11 percent in 2013, moving “substantially” closer to losing its AAA rating, Moody’s said last week."-----------------Over the years I have often wondered if the rest of the western world was depending on us not becoming like them. Great Britain, France, etc., let their military strength deteriorate because they know we won't. They extend their welfare state because they know we won't. They were taking risks because they knew we wouldn't. There would always be this strong military power with a solid capitalist economy to serve as the backbone of the western world. But now we are becoming just like them. What happens? I guess we are going to find out.